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Sunday, January 8, 2012

January 2012 Status Update

I have started to feel a little guilty that I am not out here every week putting something up. I am just not motivated right now.  :(

The felled trees are still not done and we have gone up about once a month for the last two to chop, chop, chop some more wood off of them. We are getting to the bigger stuff that is testing the limit of our chain saw, so it's not motivating. We will continue to work on that in between storms and as our work schedules allow.

The House Plans are almost done!!!!  We are enlisting the services of a friends wife who will render them in 3D so that we can see what we have done before we hand them over to the counties Living Building Architect for a once over.  Our plan is to have submitted the drawings and gotten tentative approval for our design by summer 2012. Our house is going to be so awesome.  In case I haven't mentioned this, it is based off of the 1995 Life Magazine Dream House design by Architect Dennis Wedlick.  He just completed the Hudson Passive house to rave reviews and acclaim.

Here is the summary:  Basement (subterranean but in the heating envelope) housing the water room, electrical and the train room. First floor which has three sections:  a garage with a mud-room leading through double doors to a passageway that is transitional between outside and inside leading through a large door into the heated envelope housing the kitchen, dining room and living room. There is a wide stairway leading to the second floor that houses our bedroom, Shaelyn's bedroom the communal bathroom and the laundry room as well as a Pullman Car room located centered over the garage. All of the second floor is in the heating envelope except a large storage area adjacent to the Pullman Car room.  Both the first and second floor are passively heated with hydronic radiant floor supplement as well as a soapstone wood stove centrally located on the first floor. The chimney affect will be utilized for the first and second floors as well and the house will be zoned so that we can seal off certain areas when not in use. The house is large but there isn't a single place in it that is wasted space.  It really is awesome and we hope that the architect thinks so as well.

Loan:  We have paid off 17% of our loan to date. That's in 10 months and we are pretty happy about that.  By spring 2013, we are on track to be able to break ground and start with the underground cistern, the ICF and maybe even start framing.